


Brainswap

by Insanelorraine



Series: Lab Accidents [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Bodyswap, Fluff, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mention of vomitting, TWO IDIOTS, idk how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:20:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22998325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insanelorraine/pseuds/Insanelorraine
Summary: Kamski has a habit of bringing work home with him.Gavin just wants him to pay attention to him.An argument leads to their whole worlds changing.And now they have to navigate each other's lives while maintaining the facade that they are who they say they are.
Relationships: Elijah Kamski/Gavin Reed
Series: Lab Accidents [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652638
Comments: 23
Kudos: 48





	Brainswap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pukner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pukner/gifts).



> Pukner, my best friend and favorite random idea generator, gave me this idea. 
> 
> And i had an absolute BLAST writing it. I hope you guys like it as much as I liked writing it!
> 
> If you want to see any our boi Kamski get himself into an specifc crazy situations let me know! I'm sure I can work with it!
> 
> Besides, nothing can be crazier than being Pukner's friend <3

Gavin is pissed.

Not that that’s unusual.

But this time he has a valid reason.

His boyfriend is infuriating.

“Don’t talk to me about ‘exhausted!’ You sit in an office all day! How the fuck are YOU exhausted?!” Gavin snaps.

“Isn’t that basically what YOU do all day?” Elijah asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Absolutely not! I’m a fucking detective, you ass! I don’t just sit around all day like you!”

“I don’t think you understand how much work I do at CyberLife, Gav. Endless paperwork, meetings every few minutes, an ever growing amount of projects I haven’t finished. It’s exhausting.”

“Oh I’m SO sorry that the richest man in the world is ‘exhausted!’” 

“I think you need a new chair at your desk because clearly it’s going up your ass! Now could you leave me be for a bit? I’m working on one of my many unfinished projects.” Elijah says, waving Gavin away as he turns back to the scattered parts on his desk. Gavin does not appreciate being shooed.

“You brought work home with you?! Oh hell no! We’re gonna talk like normal human beings and you’re gonna stop obsessing over your nerd shit.” Gavin snaps.

He grabs the part Elijah is working on and attempts to move it away from Elijah. But Elijah grabs his wrist to stop him. It’s a move Gavin’s pulled before in an attempt to get Elijah out of his own head.

But this time Gavin gets electrocuted.

~

Elijah wakes up to the bright lights of his lab.

Funny…

He doesn’t remember falling asleep.

He groans as he sits up, realizing he's on the floor. Not the first time he’s passed out on the floor of his lab. Usually it's on his desk but there’s been a few times he just curled up on the floor, unable to make it to his bed. He’s never been this sore before though.

He rubs his eyes as they adjust to the light. As soon as he takes his hands away from his face he sees something that shakes him to his core.

His own face, staring back at him.

“What the…?” Elijah says, his voice coming out all wrong.

“What… the fuck… did you DO, NERD?!” The ‘other’ Elijah says.

“Gavin?!” Elijah says. He knows the only one with the balls to call him that, at least to his face, is his boyfriend.

“Fucking obviously! What did you do? We switched bodies or some shit!” Gavin, as Elijah, yells.

“Could you lower your voice? My head is pounding.” Elijah says, rubbing his- or Gavin’s?- temples.

“That’s MY head that’s pounding! I told you I had a headache of a case today!” Gavin snaps, crossing his arms and leaning back in Elijah’s desk chair. Which is where Elijah SHOULD have woken up.

“There must have been an electrical surge. But this shouldn't have happened. Not at all.” Elijah mutters, thinking back to the last thing he remembers. Gavin had tried to grab part of the project to get his attention. Elijah finds it cute when Gavin acts out to get attention from him. But the project isn’t operational yet, even though the part was plugged in. He was just testing its ability to channel an electrical current.

“What the fuck kind of contraption are you even building?!” Gavin asks, squinting at the blueprints on his desk.

“It's a neural remote. Basically you’d wear it and you could control your lights, TV and other stuff just by thinking about it. It… this isn’t part of it.” Elijah says, finally standing. His- Gavin’s?- joints pop as he does. He joins Gavin at the desk and picks up the piece they’d grabbed. 

Completely fried.

“That sounds about as fucked up as that thing looks. Did it explode?” Gavin asks. Elijah feels slightly uncomfortable. He’s never heard his own voice sound so clueless.

“It burnt out. It’s fried. There was definitely an electrical surge. I could fix it but it’ll take time. I’m not sure how we’d recreate it but-” Elijah starts.

“We’re not chancing this! Don’t fix THIS! Build something TO fix this!” Gavin snaps.

Oh. Right. Elijah’s never been one to see the most obvious answer. He’s always found a way of making things more complicated than they need to be. A flaw Gavin points out quite often.

“Yeah. I can do that. Again, it’ll take time. In the meantime… What do we do about work? I have meetings tomorrow that I’ve already postponed several times so I can’t postpone them again.” Elijah says.

“Can’t we just show up like this and explain?” Gavin asks.

“Sure! I’d love to get arrested for human experimentation! Prison sounds exhilarating!” Elijah says sarcastically, glaring at Gavin. It should be hard to glare at -himself- like that. But he does it in the mirror everyday. A lifetime of self loathing will do that to you. Gavin opens his mouth to argue but seems to decide against it and closes it. 

Elijah and Gavin discuss their various options before settling on the obvious choice. Posing as each other until they can switch back. 

He then spends the rest of the night drawing up blueprints for the project that will reverse this mess.

Gavin decides to leave him alone in his lab for the night, falling asleep on Elijah’s giant bed instead.

~

Elijah had woken Gavin up early to give him an extensive list of what to say and what not to say to the important people he’ll be meeting today. He was also given a rundown on how Elijah acts at the office. He’s apparently friendly but not social.

Whatever that means.

“Good morning!” He says to the receptionist as he enters. She looks startled and a little confused.

“Uh… good morning, sir? Is there something you need?” She asks.

“No? Why?” Gavin asks. Hearing Elijah’s voice coming out of his mouth feels weird and he doesn’t enjoy it.

“It’s just… you don’t usually stop to talk to me… or anyone really. Sorry! I don’t mean to be rude! I appreciate it, of course! It’s just out of the ordinary!” She says, panickedly trying to backtrack. She’s just digging a deeper hole.

“It’s fine. I’ll be… going now.” Gavin says. He turns around and walks to the elevator. He checks his phone as he steps in so he can find the floor number Elijah put in his notes app. 

Floor 34. Got it.

He presses the button and leans his back against the wall and enjoys the ride.

~

“Reed! Get your ass in here! Now!” Comes a booming voice. Elijah almost doesn't react to it but then he remembers.

He IS Reed today.

He straightens up and rushes to the office of the man screaming at him. This must be the Captain Fowler that Gavin complains about. 

“Yes, sir?” Elijah says as he walks in.

“Don’t you ‘yes, sir’ me! Sit your ass down and take a look at this shit!” Fowler yells, dropping a file onto the desk. Elijah sits down and opens the file. 

Oh God. He thinks he’s gonna puke.

Photos of what appear to be a gruesome crime scene are in the file along with several pages of notes in Gavin’s sloppy handwriting. He really did not need to see this.

“Do you see what I see?” Fowler asks.

“Uhhh…” Elijah can’t get his brain to start, no matter how hard he’s pulling at the cord.

“There’s no muder weapon!” Fowler snaps.

“...Yes?” Elijah responds, not knowing what else to say.

“Then please enlighten me as to why… YOUR NOTES SAY IT WAS A KNIFE!” Fowler screams, shaking the windows slightly.

“I- I -I…” Elijah stammers.

“Fix your fucking mistake and get the fuck outta my office! Don’t ever make a mistake like that again! You’re on thin ice already, Reed. Do not piss me off or I’ll have you demoted!” Fowler yells.

Elijah nods furiously and gathers the papers back into the file and dashes for Gavin’s desk. He sits down and takes deep breaths to calm himself.

Who just… talks to people like that?!

~

“Kamski, would you care to explain why the project you promised you’d have a prototype for by today… isn’t here?” The man says. He’s the CEO of the other tech company that Elijah partnered on for a project. Elijah’s mentioned him a bit. He mentioned that he doesn’t really like the guy all that much. Elijah said that the other CEO is just a figurehead and isn’t very bright.

But Elijah didn’t mention any prototype! It wasn’t on his list!

“Uh… Well… You see-” Gavin starts, hoping some bullshit will find its way to his brain to get him out of this.

“Don’t play games with me, boy. We had a deal! Where are you at with the prototype?” The CEO demands.

“It’s definitely… going? Progress is going. Yep. It uh… hit a snag? In that it worked? But it didn’t work properly? I’m personally doing everything in my power to make sure this project sees the light of day! Don’t worry! You can totally count on me!” He says. He knows he doesn’t sound like Elijah. Elijah would never flounder like that, even if he had no idea what he was doing.

Most people don’t know this but Elijah doesn’t actually know everything. He’s confused a lot. Especially when it comes to social interaction. But Elijah Kamski is VERY good at bullshitting his way through conversations so that he seems cool and confident.

The CEO looks around at his… crew? Posse? Colleagues? Probably colleagues. They all look confused and slightly uncomfortable.

“Are you alright, Mr. Kamski?” The CEO asks.

“Of course! Never better!” Gavin lies. He’s not alright and he’s definitely not Kamski! In reality he’s Gavin Reed and he’s panicking!

~

Elijah is sent out, as Gavin, to investigate a lead. He was told his partner for the day would meet him there.

He arrives at the location and parks the car. He shuts it off and closes his eyes, taking slow deep breaths. He hopes he won’t see anything as gruesome as the photos in the file. He also hopes he won’t have to use the gun currently attached to his hip. He knows HOW to fire a gun and he’s not a bad shot. 

But he’s never had to fire at a living creature. Only targets at the firing range.

A knock on his window practically startles him to death. 

He looks up and sees Connor’s concerned face on the other side of the glass. Elijah sighs and unbuckles his seat belt, opening the door. Connor steps aside and allows him to get out of the car. 

“Sorry, Connor. You scared me. A lot on my mind.” Elijah says. The concern on Connor’s face deepens and he immediately puts a hand on Elijah’s- Gavins- forehead. “Uh… Whatcha doin there?” 

“You don’t appear to have a fever.” Connor states.

“No. I can assure you I don’t. Why would you think that?” Elijah asks.

“You’ve never been this… amicable. I was worried you were quite ill.” Connor says.

“Oh? Uh… Right. And what do you think I’m usually like?” Elijah asks, hoping to gleam some sense of how Gavin treats his coworkers. He knows Gavin doesn’t like androids, especially connor. Elijah suspects it’s because Gavin is jealous of Connor’s abilities. Not that Gavin would ever admit that.

“Are you going to punch me again if I answer that?” Connor asks. 

Punch?!

Gavin punched him?!

“I… seem to have forgotten that interaction. Jog my memory?” Elijah says.

“When we first properly met, you punched me in my thirium regulator because I refused to get you a coffee.” Connor states.

Ooooh they are going to have WORDS when they get home.

Connor points to the warehouse they are investigating and suggests that they hurry to start the investigation. He motions for Elijah to lead the way. Elijah turns and starts walking toward the door and Connor follows behind. Elijah tries the door.

Locked. 

He starts to look around for another way in when he notices Connor’s questioning look.

“What?” He asks.

“Are you going to kick it in?” Connor asks.

“Oh… Yeah. I am. Obviously.” Elijah says.

He turns back to face the door again. 

Where do you kick to break a lock?

It takes him five tries before he finds the sweet spot and the door opens, sending Elijah flying forward. Connor catches him effortlessly and rights him up again. Elijah avoids eye contact, feeling his face heat up with embarrassment.

The second he walks through the door he regrets being born.

“Oh my God! That smell!” Elijah says, covering his face with his shirt. He’s unable to keep himself from making unattractive retching sounds.

“Something died here. We should be careful.” Connor says, looking around. Elijah wishes he was anywhere but here. He walks forward a few steps but Connor stops him with an arm. “You gun, Detective?”

Oh.

Oh… no…

Elijah hesitantly pulls out his gun and holds it upright, close to his body. Like he’s seen in movies. Connor immediately corrects this, glaring at him. They walk together further into the room until Connor notices something and pulls him over to it. As they approach the stench gets thicker and Elijah thinks he’ll be the next thing to die in here.

The walk around a large wall of boxes and there on the floor is a human person, horribly mutilated.

Elijah turns and vomits.

~

The second meeting is right after the first one. This time it's androids. Of course it’s androids! But it’s not just any androids.

It’s fucking Jericho.

Ever since the revolution last year, they’ve been working with CyberLife on various nerd bullshit and they’re constantly on the news working with the government for android rights.

Gavin hates them.

It’s because of them he has to play nice with androids. It’s because of them that he has to investigate crimes against androids and pretend to care. It’s because of them that he has too many cases on his desk and he can’t study for the lieutenant's exam.

But it’s also because of them that he met Elijah.

Stupid fucking Connor had brought in Kamski to pick his brain and Gavin practically melted at the sight of him. Elijah was the one who initiated contact after that, since he’d been too nervous to approach him. Tina had called him a gay disaster.

And she was right.

“Hello again, Elijah. How have you been?” The leader, Markus he thinks, says.

“Fine.” Gavin says. He tries his best to keep his voice even and ‘friendly.’

“Have you put any thought into what we talked about last time?” Markus asks. This was on the list!

“Yep. The project has been approved. I will send you the information as I receive it.” Gavin replies. He must have sounded as annoyed as he feels at being questioned by an android because Markus’ LED spins yellow.

“Is everything alright? You seem… distressed.” Markus says. The other androids in the room murmur in agreement. The blond guy seems particularly worried. The other guy only seems slightly concerned. The girl on the other hand…

She has murder in her eyes.

“...Yeah. Personal problems. Relationship trouble, you know.” Gavin says. Which isn’t TECHNICALLY a lie.

Elijah’s gonna BE in trouble if he doesn’t get this fixed.

~

Elijah collapses into Gavin’s desk chair at the precinct.

He’s never seen anything as horrible as the things he’s seen today. He just wants to go home and curl up in a ball.

“Reed! Follow me. We need to talk.” Comes a slightly familiar voice. He doesn’t have time to figure out where he’s heard it before when he’s hauled up from his seat and pulled into the walkway. Lieutenant Anderson walks to one of the interrogation monitoring rooms and waits for him outside the door. 

Elijah trudges over and walks into the room. Anderson walks in after him and closes the door behind him. He stares at him for a moment with his arms crossed over his chest, seemingly waiting for Elijah to say something first. 

That’s not going to happen.

“What happened today, Reed?” Anderson asks.

“I… uh…” Is all Elijah manages to get out before his brain gives up.

“What’s going on with you, kid? For the past few days you’ve been on top of your work but moodier than ever. Now today Connor tells me you’re freaking out over a dead body but you’re apparently friendlier than ever. You’ve seen plenty of corpses, Reed. What’s going on?” Anderson says.

Well he really hit the nail on the head, didn’t he?

“I’ve got a lot… going on in my life right now. It won’t happen again.” Elijah says, unsure of how Gavin usually speaks with him. Anderson is his superior but he knows Gavin has a special rage that comes with talking about him.

Elijah must have gotten it wrong because Anderson looks slightly confused. 

“Is it Kamski again? I told you he’s fucking weird. What’d he do to piss you off this time?” Anderson asks.

Gavin has… complained about him before? What?! Why?! They hardly ever fight and when they do they Elijah always makes sure to patch it up with him by the end of the day.

“What was it last time? He was ignoring you or some shit?” Anderson asks.

“I… don’t remember.” Elijah answers honestly. Because he doesn’t remember. Because he wasn’t THERE for this conversation.

“Yeah, yeah… I remember now. You said some shit about Kamski caring more about everything else than you. Said some shit like he wouldn’t even notice if you left.” Anderson says thoughtfully.

“I… need to go home. I’m taking the rest of the day off.” Elijah says, pushing passed him to the door.

“I was gonna tell you to do that anyway. And, hey, maybe it’s time you dumped that creepy sonofabitch. Hate to say it, but you can do better.” Anderson calls after him.

He needs to go home. 

He doesn’t like people seeing him cry.

He definitely doesn’t want people to see him cry in Gavin’s body.

~

Meeting…

After meeting…

After meeting!

By the time the last one finishes, Gavin can hardly pick his head up off the table. 

He slowly gathers his stuff and the new paperwork and shit he’s been given and puts them in Elijah’s messenger bag. He stands up and stretches out, popping his- Elijah’s- back in several places. 

He walks out of the room and heads to the elevator, intending on going home for the day. 

The elevator doors open to the ground floor and he exits, nodding at the receptionist as he heads for the exit.

Big mistake.

The second he walks out of the building he’s swarmed by reporters. Cameras flashing and mics shoved in his face. Everyone is talking at once. Everyone is yelling Kamski’s name and trying to ask questions. He slowly pushes through them but they only get louder and louder. 

He gets into Elijah’s car, which he’d driven to the office, and breathes a sigh of relief. He checks his mirrors only to realize the reporters are swarming the car too.He’s not going to talk to them as Elijah since Elijah NEVER gives them any time. And he wouldn’t want to taint Elijah’s clean reputation by cussing them out. And as much as he’d love to, running them over isn’t an option.

So he lays on the horn. 

For a WHILE.

They finally give him enough space to back out. So he does. And he speeds out of the vicinity like the devil himself is after him.

He needs to get to Elijah’s place and collapse into a plie.

Immediately.

~

Gavin enters his boyfriend’s ginormous house and plops the messenger bag down on one of the chairs in the foyer. He wanders further into the house but stops when he hears sobbing.

His own voice.

Sobbing.

He follows the sounds to Elijah’s lab and opens the door. The sobbing promptly stops and Elijah turns his chair around to face him. 

Elijah’s- or rather his own- face is red and his eyes are puffy. There’s a tissue box on the desk and about a million used tissues in the trash next to the desk. He has a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and he’s wearing his own clothes again.

“You think… I don’t care about you...?” Elijah asks quietly, voice broken.

“Hey now… I know you care about me! You show it in your own weird way!” Gavin says, kneeling down next to Elijah’s chair.

“You… you told Anderson… that I wouldn’t even notice if you left me! You… you want to leave me?” Elijah asks, voice climbing higher at the end and breaking off in a choked sob.

“I… no, Eli. I don’t want to leave you. I was upset that day and he noticed and cornered me. I was bitter that you blew me off to work on a project. Again. It was around the time we first started dating. I’m used to it now. I know I can just come here and get the attention I want instead of having to drag you out on a date.” Gavin explains.

“‘Used to it?’ I… I’m sorry, Gav. I didn’t know you were so upset about that.” Elijah says, sniffling.

“Well, I mentioned it. A lot. You were busy and didn’t hear me. But it’s okay, I've moved passed that.” Gavin assures him.

“I’m never going to bring work home with me again. Doing so caused this mess in the first place. I promise… from now on as soon as I leave CyberLife you have my full, undivided attention.” Elijah says. Gavin chuckles.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, nerd. Your mind is always on work. At least you’re good at multitasking.” Gavin says. Elijah manages a small smile. “Speaking of, have you made any progress on the doohickey that’s gonna change us back while you were having your little cryfest?”

“You’re the worst person I’ve ever met.” Elijah says, rolling his eyes. 

“Then why are you dating me?” Gavin says, smirking. He stands and looks over the scattered plastic and metal pieces on the desk.

“Because you’re also the best person I’ve ever met.” Elijah says, smiling up at him. He looks back down at the desk and starts talking about his blueprint for the doohickey and explains what he’s built so far. Gavin didn’t get any of it. 

He’s learned to tune Elijah out when he starts talking nerd shit.

“So… can I get that in English?” Gavin asks. Elijah sighs and shakes his head.

“Not done. Will be another day or two. I’m not, under ANY circumstances, going back to your job, by the way.” Elijah says.

“Not so easy now, is it?” Gavin says, crossing his arms, giving him a look at screams ‘I told you so.’

“Ugh… I don’t want to talk about it. But I will never shit on your job again, that’s for sure!” Elijah groans.

“Yeah, well… your life isn’t a walk in the park either. How do you deal with talking to people like that all day? Meetings last so long! They expect answers I don’t have!” Gavin says.

“I don’t have the answers either. But you get used to it after a while.” 

“Please don’t make me go back there, Eli.” 

“I’ll call out sick if you do.” 

“Fucking deal!”

~

Gavin wakes up face down on a desk.

Again.

He immediately looks at his hands to see if they’re his. He’s tanner than Elijah, who doesn’t leave the house unless it’s to get to the office. His fingers are also shorter than Elijah’s.

Yep these are his.

A groan next to him draws his eyes over to where Elijah is laying on the floor, slowly sitting up. He takes a moment to adjust to the harsh lighting and looks up at Gavin and smiles. He pops up from the floor and practically tackles Gavin off the chair. 

His lips are captured by Elijah’s and he smiles into the kiss. They’d both refused to kiss each other in the wrong bodies. It felt too weird.

It feels good to kiss his boyfriend again.

Elijah pulls back slightly and leans his forehead against Gavin’s, breathing heavily from springing up so fast.

“I love you, Gavin.” He whispers.

Gavin’s heart skips a beat.

That’s the first time Elijah’s said that to him.

“You do?” Gavin whispers back.

“I do.” Elijah says, planting his lips on Gavin’s again. Gavin kisses back harder and wraps his arms around Elijah and squeezes.

After a few moments the separates and Gavin places his hands on the side of Elijah’s head, keeping his forehead against Gavin’s.

“I love you too.”


End file.
